


Smells Like Books

by loserwithapencil



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Amortentia, M/M, Scorbus, in which rose is meddling, they kiss and its cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 06:19:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9371960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loserwithapencil/pseuds/loserwithapencil
Summary: Rose finds herself wanting Albus and Scorpius to forgive her. Whether it's for genuine guilt, or her own stubborn intentions, nobody knows. The best way to get them to forgive her is obviously to meddle in their relationship by getting them to smell some Amortentia and realize they’re deeply in love with each other. Right?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first work I'm putting on this website and I'm super pumped about it. I'm really only writing it as an outlet for the stress I face with the fact that they didn't actually get together. I'm sure if you're reading this, you feel the pain.

***************  
“Yann, this is serious.” Rose calmly said, trying to muster up some sort of patience.

“Yes. I understand that, but I can't help but feel that this is a bit of a roundabout way to make it up to Scorpius and Albus.” Rose took a breath.

“Amortentia. It smells like what you're attached to.” Rose continued explaining her plan, ignoring Yann’s continuous protests.

“Correct.”

“Then we just get both of them to smell some and hope they realize it smells exactly like the other person.”

“How do you know that it will?” Yann was skeptical, trying to be supportive of the plan for Rose, but skeptical.

“Oh for Merlin’s sake Yann. Look at them!” The two looked across the Great Hall, over at the Slytherin table. Scorpius was smiling, in all his awkward Scorpius glory, and Albus was waving his hands around, probably ranting about another potion’s exam. Scorpius raised his eyebrows and said something probably along the lines of, “Maybe you should just study for it.” And Albus punched his shoulder, fondly rolling his eyes.  
You could actually see the love hearts circling their heads, it was so obvious. It was practically as if a giant arrow was pointing at their heads, neon lights flashing, ‘These two idiotic boys are in love with each other’.

“I don't see it.” Yann squinted his eyes, as if that would help him see it better. Rose blew a curly hair out of her face, resting her head in her hands.

“Of course you don't.”  
***************  
Scorpius was in the library, flipping through the pages of an interesting book on herbology. Albus had left a while ago to talk to his potions teacher about some make up assignment Scorpius had convinced him to do. He was comfortably leaning in his chair, trying to contain all the excitement building over the last passage on Venomous Tentacula. The last thing he expected was Rose to pop up out of nowhere and talk to him.

“Scorpius!” He dropped his book and make a slight squeak.

“Rose! Wait, Rose? It's Scorpius, I'm not sure if you have the wrong table, but-”

“Hey, before you do the rambling thing you tend to do sometimes, could you do me a huge favor?” He raised is eyebrows in confusion, fiddling with his sleeves awkwardly.

“A favor? Yeah, sure, of course. Anything for you.” Rose took a deep breath, already feeling her patience withering.

“I'm doing a paper on Amortentia. Mostly about the smell and how it relates to things you're fond of, even if you may not realize it.” She was heavily trying to hint at his infatuation with Albus.

“Oh wow, sounds cool! I’ve never smelt it before, but I’ve always wanted to. Did you know that Amortentia was first made by-”

“I hate to cut you off again,” She didn’t, “but long story short I need you to smell it for me and describe what you smell.” Scorpius was so excited and infatuated and everything was a bit of a whirl at the moment, so he forgot to ask why she wanted him to do it.

“Sure, that sounds amazing. Where did you get Amortentia?” A slight bribe toward a sneaky first year learning about love potions in his class.

“A professor. I just asked for my project.” Scorpius was a bit trusting toward Rose. And he liked her. So he chose to just believe. He nodded, still pulling at his sweater cuffs. Next thing he knows, Rose is holding a vial. Almost immediately after she pulls the cork out, blue swirls of smoke came out of the top. She thought it would be better to just open the potion there instead of the hall where a professor could be. The library was nearly empty and she figured the potion would be uncapped for a very short time.

Scorpius wafted a bit of the smoke toward his face and immediately was smiling.

“I smell old book pages.” Scorpius smiled bigger. Of course he smelt books, what else gave him that comfort?

His smile dropped.

“What else do you smell? Was it something you didn't expect? I need to know for my,” she hesitated, “research.” Scorpius was smelling the potion closely now, desperately searching for a different smell. He couldn’t seem to smell anything else. His hands flattened his shirt and fixed his hair and tried desperately to distract himself in any way.

“Uh…”

“Scorpius, you must tell me what you smell. Clearly it is something.”

“It kind of smells like,” cinnamon and brick and fabric and safety, “like,”

“Scorpius please tell me. I can keep a secret if you need me to, but now I’m all too curious.” Rose knew it. She totally called it and was ready to rub it in Yann’s face.

“It's smells like brick, cinnamon, and fabric and that sort of thing I guess.” Rose narrowed her eyes, trying to get Scorpius to just admit it already.

“You guess? Scorpius. Just tell me who it smells like. It's clearly someone.” It smelt distinctly like safety and dry humor and an annoyed eye roll. It smelt distinctly Albus. And he knew it.  
“It smells like Albus doesn't it?” Rose kept her narrowed eyes focused on him. Scorpius’s dropped gaze and sudden lack of speech was enough to tell her the answer was yes.  
“I won't tell.” She got up and walked off, adjusting her skirt and capping the potion again, leaving the blonde, grey-eyed boy to his thoughts.

Suddenly Venomous Tentacula didn't seem as interesting.  
***************  
“Albus, wait up!” Rose thanked her unbelievable luck as she saw Albus on his way back to the library.

“Rose? Still trying to make up your abandonment to me?” She bit her lip, trying not to mess this up for herself.

“Yes actually.” Albus smiled slightly and raised his eyebrows. “That and I’m in kind of a fix.” Rose said, fabricating a lie on the spot.

“A fix?”

“I need one more quote for a paper for potions. I just asked Scorpius and he gave me a good one.” That grabbed Albus’s attention.

“You talked to Scorpius? In school? In front of people? Shocking.” He crossed his arms.

“Typical Albus, super angsty. So I'm assuming you won't help?” The green-eyed boy smiled cockily.

“You need me to help you? Funny.”

“Oh, fine.” Rose smirked. “I guess I'll just have to tell Scorpius that his wonderful quote is going to go to waste. I’ll have to restart the paper and he’ll be so upset-”

“Well, I guess I can just do it really quickly,” He ran his hands through his hair, annoyed with himself for giving in. “But I’m only doing this so Scorpius won't complain for the next semester about it.” Rose saw straight through the lie.

“Don't care why you're doing it, as long as you do it.”

“Now what exactly is it?” Rose pulled the vial out of her pocket and ducked into a little corridor in case a professor came around.

“Smell this Amortentia for me? And tell me what it smells like.” Much different to Scorpius, Albus just leaned in and took in a deep breath, not attempting to ask any questions first.

“Leaves. Just like a lot of leaves. Not sure why.”

“What else?” Rose smiled, waiting for the last piece of her plan to fall into place. She knew the second Albus’s eyebrows furrowed that he had smelled it. He kept breathing in and out, searching for some sort of answer that Rose knew he would only find in a certain blonde haired boy a few hallways down.

“Like paper I guess.”

“The face you're making suggests otherwise.”

“I swear it smells like paper.” Albus said, slowly losing his cool.

“Like Scorpius?” Albus’s head shot up. “Merlin, don't get whiplash buddy.” Rose shook her head.

“I said paper.”

“You said paper. I heard Scorpius.” Albus didn't know whether to get angry with Rose or focus all his energy on not telling her that it smelt a lot like platinum blonde and endearing side smiles and twenty minute rants about anything and everything.

“I said paper.” Albus stood his ground, gritting his teeth.

“Yes you did. We covered that. What I’m saying is we both know you smelt a certain boy’s platinum blonde hair.”

“And what I’m saying is you’re very stubborn and I’m very annoyed.”

“He smelt books,” Albus shut up. “And some other stuff.”

“I'm not surprised,” He smiled lightly, “What else did he smell?”

“Why don't you go ask him yourself. You can thank me later.”

“Thank you for what?” Rose smiled as she began to walk away toward the Gryffindor common room.

“You're welcome!” She shouted over her shoulder.  
***************  
Scorpius and Albus were now laying on the floor of their shared room, Scorpius blowing pieces of hair out of his face.

“Did Rose ask you to smell the Amortentia?” Albus asked, suddenly overflowing with curiosity.

“Yeah she did. It's was amazing. Did you know Amortentia was made in-”

“Cut to the good parts. What did you smell?” Albus felt the small turn in his stomach at the sudden thought of Scorpius saying it smelt like him.

“Books mostly.” Scorpius tensed.

“What else? You must have smelt more than that.”

“Nothing really. Yep, just books. You know me. Book geek. Love books. Really love the library. Yep that’s me-”

“Scorpius.” He took a deep breath, trying not to blurt out that it smelt just like Albus when they hugged and just like Albus when he rolled his eyes and called him a geek.

It was very hard for Scorpius Malfoy not to blurt things.

“What did you smell?” Albus glanced at him, knowing all too well that he was avoiding the question.

“I smelt leaves. And books.”

“You smelt books? You hate books.” Scorpius turned on his side to face his best friend.

“You smell like books.” Scorpius felt his stomach drop and he was suddenly very aware of his rapid pulse and his overwhelming lack of breath.

“You smelt...me?” Albus gulped. Yes. Of course I did. I’m not all that surprised honestly.

“The Amortentia smelt a bit like you, yes.” Albus prayed that the decision he was making was not a bad one, but he needed to go for it. He was so worried that Scorpius could hear his heart beating all too quickly. Scorpius was too busy repeating what he heard and what it meant in his head.

Albus Potter is admitting his attraction to me at this very moment.

“I smelt cinnamon and brick and fabric,” Albus nodded, not sure where the conversation was heading now, “It smelt like you Albus. The potion smelt like you.”

Scorpius Malfoy is admitting that he likes me right now. The very attractive teenage boy right next to me just admitted that there is the slightest chance that he likes me.

“Oh.” Albus felt all to aware of his own breathing.

“Albus, I really don't want to beat around the bush here and pretend we both aren't thinking the same thing right now. I really hope you're thinking the same thing right now, but I really like you and you smell a lot like bricks and I really want to tell you that. So, if you don't like me I need you to tell me because I don't know if-”

“I do.” Albus interrupted, feeling his stomach doing backflips.

“You do?”

“I do.”

“Oh.” Scorpius tried to look anywhere except down at his friend.

“I like you a lot actually. And your dumb blonde hair and your stupid side grin and your stupidly gorgeous grey eyes and your amazing way of making everything better just by existing.” 

Scorpius’s nervous energy was slowly affecting Albus. Scorpius felt the world stop around him, almost as if the world was telling him, “Please for the love of Merlin, just look at him”. So he did. He looked at him, taken back by the way Albus was already staring at him. They both sat up.

“Okay. Okay. I'm just processing this right now.” Scorpius thought out loud, and in all his awkward Scorpius glory, turned to make eye contact with the boy he was utterly falling for.

“Scorpius, I’m really stupid and all I want to do right now is kiss you and I really want you to let me so. Can I do that?” Both boys felt their faces redden dramatically.

“Yes. You can do that. You can most definitely do that.”

So he did.

It was awkward and strange and odd and new, but Albus liked odd. That’s why he liked Scorpius. Albus connected their lips and felt Scorpius hesitate, worried and anxious, as per usual. When Scorpius started to lean in to Albus’s kiss, Albus was sure that he was deafening Scorpius with how loud his pulse was. And when Albus placed his hand on the back of Scorpius’s neck, tangling his fingers into the short tufts of hair, Scorpius was sure Albus could feel the shivers down his spine. They disconnected for a split second before Scorpius decided that was a bad idea and leaned in again. Albus rushed to put his hand back in Scorpius’s hair, missing the way he felt grounded holding it. Scorpius didn't really know where to put his lanky arms and just settled for wrapping them around Albus and clutching his shirt in his hands. His body was trying to hold on tight enough to the moment, worried that if he let go the moment would be broken. Albus smelt like cinnamon. Scorpius smelt like books.

Neither of them would be forgetting that smell any time soon.


End file.
